People everywhere are more the same than they are different. As parents, although our cultural norms and structure might be different, we all basically want the same things for our kids. We want them to be happy, successful, well-adjusted, and kind. But in China, the pressure to stand out and excel is pretty tough, to put it mildly. The pressure to do well in school, to have artistic abilities and academic prowess, is real and well founded, as it does make the difference in what doors open for children, so we can’t ignore that. But what do kids really need in order to achieve our basic wishes for them?
We live in a rapidly changing world. With the ease of information at our fingertips constantly, the pressure to learn and retain facts is not really required anymore. Rather than knowing lots of information, our kids need to know how to find information, how to evaluate sources for credibility, and how to compare and contrast different information from different sources and understand nuance and bias in information, to discriminate fact from opinion, and to use reasoning and logic to draw conclusions. In other words, our children need to learn to become good researchers.
Along with being able to pick apart rational arguments and information, our children need to develop a moral compass. In some ways, the digital age and globalization has made the world so easy to attain with only a few clicks, that I fear we have lost a set of grounding principles to guide us through the many ethical dilemmas of modern life. Yet, with so many diplomatic and environmental struggles on the docket of our current world system, having a moral bottom line seems essential to navigating our ever more convenient lives. We need to find a way to value the simple pleasures of life – a quick meal, transportation, and the changing landscape of people that flow in and out of our lives are all precious things that we may take for granted, yet many of these simple conveniences were unattainable or extravagant not that long ago.
Educators from around the world are beginning to understand the value of the simplest things in life. Cultivating gardens, making ample time and space for enjoying a walk in nature, even playing simple music or painting have come to the forefront of the leading institutions in education. Self-care, reflection, home cooked foods, and hobbies have suddenly become valued by highly successful people. Even finding time for unstructured play has become a staple in big business. It’s almost as if our grandparents were really onto something – that the things they spent their time on really were worth doing, and now that they are no longer a necessity, they are what fills our lives with satisfaction.
Because our lives have become so much more convenient, rich, and full of opportunity, don’t we owe our children a way to maximize this spectacular situation? We can fully take advantage of our circumstance by enriching our children’s minds with the highest art, the most subtle expressions, and the deepest cultivation of stewardship that we can imagine. We have the time and the resources. And the only things we cannot access in the new global culture are the things which always were the most real: deep thinking, a moral compass, and passion for self-directed handmade work. These are truly gems we can try to cultivate and share with our 21st century kids for a bright and healthy future.
Photo: Pixabay
